Israel election: headache for Benjamin Netanyahu as Left and Right blocs draw

Israel's Right and centre-Left blocs have won an equal share of the country's 120-seat parliament in the election, with 99.5 per cent of votes counted, presenting a potential political headache and complex coalition negotiations.

The figures published on the committee's website early on Wednesday showed the joint list fielded by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, coming out ahead of its rivals in Tuesday's elections, with 31 seats in total.

But the success of various centrist, leftwing and Arab factions means the overall makeup of the parliament will be evenly split, in a rare result for Israel.

Within the rightwing bloc, in addition to the 31 seats garnered by a list joining Mr Netanyahu's Likud and the secular national Yisrael Beitenu, the national religious Jewish Home won 11 seats, as did the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas.

The Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism faction won seven seats, bringing the bloc's total to 60.

On the centre-Left side, the centrist Yesh Atid - the surprise success of the elections - came away with 19 seats, slightly ahead of the centre-left Labour party, which won 15.